Contemporary Issues in Law and the Society: Reflections from South Africa and Selected Jurisdictions

Product Details:
Author(s):
Dr Chitimira, H ,
Warikandwa, TV and
Phooko, M
Year Published:
2025
Edition
1st Edition
Type:
Print | Soft Cover
Language:
English
About this publication
The intricate framework of a constantly evolving corpus of laws, rules, and principles
characterises the legal education and profession in the twenty-first century. Gone are the
days of studying the law from a conventional doctrinal point of view. In the contemporary
society, legal practice and education extend beyond other disciplines that are not specifically
related to law. In this context, 21st-century legal educators should be adaptable in order to
map out the course that society and the law should take in a reasonable and realistic manner.
Law teachers in the twenty-first century must be innovative and address complex societal
issues with the goal of offering practical and/or realistic solutions. It is unequivocal that
the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions
(4IR and 5IR) have given rise to a number of previously unheard-of legal multifaceted
socio-legal issues which countries in the twenty-first century have to address. Challenges
brought about by globalisation, technological innovation, and related social changes that
follow from these developments should prompt law teachers to address these challenges
by moving beyond doctrinal to non-doctrinal discourses. It is in this framework that the
2024 Southern African Law Teachers Conference, which took place in South Africa, was
conducted. This edited book includes select contributions from the 2024 Southern Africa
Law Teachers on discourses related to complex legal issues, including human rights, law
and society, constitutional law, and legal education and AI. The authors of the chapters
tackle a wide range of intricate legal matters in a way that captures society’s fluidity and
the ever-evolving recurrent challenges. The authors of respective chapters examine a few
legal and modern socio-legal topics as well as difficulties that arise in legal practice and
education. The book’s implicit message is to ensure that lawyers and legal educators
should not have a fixation on traditional black-letter legal issues but must rather explore
how the law interacts with non-traditional legal challenges in order to advance workable
solutions to society’s complex legal and societal issues.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Table of Cases
Table of Statutes
Chapter 1: Contemporary Issues in Law and Society in the 21st Century: An Introduction
Chapter 2: Unravelling the Tapestry: Interpreting the South African Constitution’s Bill of Rights
and Foundational Values – A Reflective Glance
Chapter 3: The Institutional Resilience of the Judiciary in the Maintenance of an Accountable System of Governance in South Africa
Chapter 4: Jurisdiction in the High Court of South Africa: Facilitating or Impeding Access to Justice?
Chapter 5: Acting Judgeship for Academics in South Africa: Exploring the Need for a Uniform Policy Framework at South African Law Schools
Chapter 6: Resilience in Legal Education: Analysing the Reliability and Validity of ChatGPT for
Undergraduate Legal Research
Chapter 7: Using Lessons from a Prison–University Educational Partnership to Rehumanise and
Transform Legal Pedagogy
Chapter 8: Navigating Dismissal in the Era of Social Media:  Insights from Makhoba v CCMA on Racial Comments
Chapter 9: The Role of Churches in Crime Prevention: A Study of the Kutama-Sinthumule Area,
Vhembe District, Limpopo Province
Chapter 10: The Supreme Court of Namibia’s Use of Foreign Precedents in Constitutional Interpretation (1990–2023): A 21st Century Perspective
Chapter 11: A Critical Assessment of the Legal and Policy Framework for Combating Trafficking in Persons in Zimbabwe
Chapter 12: Wrongful Convictions, Post-conviction Claims of Actual Innocence and Innocence Commission under the Criminal Justice System
Chapter 13: Equality as an Essential Element for Improving Human Life in South Africa
Index
Interest / Benefit to
Practitioner
Student